and neither of us needs to breathe
by Zarinha Lobo
Summary: I'd much rather not write a summary because it will just ruin all the fun. So lets just say it is Bella/Edward shipping, but in a very different, I suppose you would call it 'alternate universe' kind of way. Very curious how you will react to this...
1. Chapter 1

_I'd much rather not write a summary because it will just ruin all the fun. So lets just say it is Bella/Edward shipping, but in a very different, I suppose you would call it 'alternate universe' kind of way. Very curious how you will react to this..._

… **and neither of us needs to breath**

It all started that sunny day in April. Alice had foreseen it a while ago and we had all been planning to go to the coast together. Shark hunting. It had been Emmett's idea of course and of course we didn't go to any crowded tourist beach, but to a place so far away and lonely, no human would ever feel tempted about going there. The place was nice. A small island Esme and Carlisle had bought some years ago. It was called after Esme and we all loved being here. Able to walk around in the sun without carefully turning your head every other minute. Still none of us was in the mood to just lay in the sun and it didn't take long until Emmett impatiently asked Rosalie to come _fishing_, as he liked to call it. Esme and Carlisle had already been swimming away in a different direction and we all felt the need to give them some privacy. So Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie and me headed off into the big wide ocean. Alice had already been picturing herself feeding on a big white and Jasper went diving after her as ever. Emmett was showing off in front of Rosalie, telling her how very easily he could win a fight with an Orca. "And you know, they _are_ called killer whale for a good reason!"

Rosalie just rolled her eyes at me meaningful and followed her mate, inviting me to come, mentally. "Hurry, Edward! Emmett will leave you some fins." I grinned after her, but didn't follow. They all enjoyed being alone with their partners at some times.

Being under water made it hard to smell properly. Even for a vampire. You had to look out for your prey. If something was already bleeding we could sense it naturally. We were just like sharks in some of our ways. A cluster of salmon was passing me, but I was going for the bigger ones. Just as I was thinking about how Dolphins were the only under water animals that always avoided us I saw something passing in my peripheral view that caught my eye. It was a big fishtail, shimmering green and silvery, gone after half a second. Without any hasty movement I let myself glide deeper into the cool water, gently swimming next to the barricade of stones, were the fish had disappeared. I still didn't sense anything and started sliding behind the stones, carefully, looking out for my prey. I pressed myself against the stone and closed my eyes to try taking a breath. It never really worked underwater though. I would probably just get salty water in my dispensable lungs which I would have to cough out later that day. Still hesitating, pressing my body to the cold rock I concentrated hardly, to feel any movement of the sea to guess the direction my food had taken.

Then it hit me. Literally. Something hard and cold was being pressed against my neck, pushing me against the rock even harder. I was surprised but not hurt. I felt the hard metal, but knew it wouldn't bruise me. I was already pretty sure that this was Emmetts work. I planned on grabbing his feed before he would realize I had opened my eyes. With that thought I made a dart at his feed without opening my eyes, laughing to myself silently. Grabbing for Emmetts feed I felt something unexpected between my hands. It didn't feel like any part of our stone-like, icy vampire body at all. Soft and somehow slicker it felt. I held on to it, while slowly opening my eyes and –got hit with something at the back of my head. It still didn't hurt, but it surprised me again and I let go, touching my head automatically. "Eat that, monster!" I heard an unfamiliar voice shout at me in thoughts and then I saw it. The most beautiful face I had ever seen with the most splendid green eyes, starring at me full of hate. The moment only lasted a second, then, with a splash she was gone, leaving me unable to move, starring after her not knowing what to think or do.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I spend the entire day looking for her, but the only human faces I saw at the end of the day were those of Alice and Emmett, as they came to get me out of the water. If my skin would have been able to shrivel in water, I would have looked like an old man by the time we got back to Esme Island. Excited and confused I told them about my encounter under the sea. Alice raised her eyebrows.

"The only thing I saw was that you would have been swimming around the ocean for the whole night. So you probably wouldn't have found her."

"But you didn't see me meeting her?" Alive shook her head remorseful. "I was really concentrating on getting that shark, you know?" Jasper watched me carefully. "I have never gotten feelings like this from you." Esme stepped behind us, putting her hands on my shoulders. "What do you mean Jasper?" She asked gently. Jasper shrugged. "He has never been so much into something like this. I mean Edward gets excited when he is hunting, he's happy when he makes his family happy and he is turned off when something dangerous approaches. But never like this. It is as if all of these feelings are trying to win him over at ones, but they are so much stronger than they ever were. I wonder…"

"Wonder what?" Rosalie demanded looking from Jasper to myself suspiciously. Jasper grinned his innocent grin. "So was she pretty, Edward?"

Rosalie hissed at him: "For all we know she was our dumb brother's hallucination and nothing more." Alice smiled: "No I actually think Jasper is right. I can't wait to meet her! Oh" Her smile faded. "You're not going to find her tomorrow either, though. Can't you look any harder?" Alice's sudden excitement didn't actually thrill me and neither did the prediction she just gave me. I really didn't feel like talking anymore and softly took Esme's hands from shoulders, strolling of to the other side of the island. I needed a place to think and be by myself. Behind me I could still hear my family arguing about my strange collide. "He hasn't even fed after all!" Alice said in a quiet voice. I could hear Emmett laugh in disbelieve. "Thanks for sharing, Alice." I mumbled, sure she would hear. "Damn that girl must have been hot." Emmett chuckled. I could hear Rosalie giving him a snarl. Jealous little Rosalie. But the most important questions were still open. Who was she. What was she. A vampire? She could hardly be human, diving so deep under water, hitting me with that strange tool so hard and disappearing in seconds. So she probably was a vampire. Living here, at Esme Island, maybe? Was there a family, a coven? Or was she a loner, a stray, wandering the earth, looking for somebody worth staying. My thoughts were drifting off as I involuntarily imagined me to be that person she was looking for. I had never seen a face so pretty so perfect. Full lips and bright eyes. Just to imagine those eyes looking at someone, not filled with disgust and hate, but in a positive way. These eyes looking at me that way. I had reached the end of Esme Island, the part where the beach was sprinkled with stones and rocks. I started climbing on of the bigger ones, balancing like on a rope, walking further along the rocks, that lead into the ocean, like a stony bridge, ending on a big, flat stone. This was where I sat down to think. I can think forever. Other people think about something for a minute, or an hour, or if it is important, for a day maybe. I could think about one thing for weeks, month, for years if I had to. There had just never been anything interesting enough to think about this badly. I hadn't even noticed the sun going down and up again. My hunger was controllable and since Alice had already seen me not finding the girl I could just as well stay here and keep on thinking for a while. A fresh morning breathe tousled my hair and tiny waves started to come and splash against my rock. As the wind grew stronger the waves did, and then all of a sudden my face was wet of a huge wave that must have hit me while I was deep in thoughts. I shook my head and felt the tiniest bit like waking up. Of course I knew I wasn't. I hadn't slept in some decades, but while I was shaking my head to get the salty wetness out off my hair I saw my daydream come to live, right in front of me, for there she was, right below my rock. She was holding herself up on a smaller rock on her elbows, her body covered in water, watching me carefully. "He _is_ pretty." She thought and I felt like I should be blushing. "But still a monster." With this she turned to dive away again. "Stop! Wait!" I yelled and her head swung around again, looking nervous and a little bit frightened. I cursed myself in my head, for I could think of nothing –_nothing_ to say to her. Nothing to say to make her stay. I could only sit there and stare into her deep green eyes. I was actually drowning in them now. As I saw that she was turning to leave again I said the first thing that got to my mind, just to gave me a mental slap in the face seconds later: "I think you are very pretty, too." I yelled. Didn't say it, didn't whisper or mumble it, no I YELLED it. Even from this place at the island I could hear Emmett's roaring laughter. And so could she. Before I could get myself out off her mystic eyes she was gone, taking parts of me with her. Parts of me I didn't even know I had had.


End file.
